1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coin dispensing apparatus for use in coin exchangers, coin operated gaming machines or the like and more particularly to such a coin dispensing apparatus comprising a hopper for holding a supply of coins or tokens in bulk and a rotary disc which is rotated in the hopper to dispense coins one at a time and in predetermined quantities.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hitherto, such a coin dispensing apparatus is known as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 62-45,588 (U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,433), and generally comprises a hopper for holding a supply of coins in bulk and a rotary disc rotatably disposed at one side within the hopper at an angle to the horizontal. The rotary disc has a central circular stage provided with a plurality of agitating pins, and a plurality of coin transporting pins arranged in a peripheral portion around the central circular stage such as to receive one coin between two sequential transporting pins spaced apart in the peripheral direction of the rotary disc. The coin dispensing apparatus further comprises a delivery guide and an outlet chute which are fixed to a stationary frame at an upper delivery portion. The delivery guide extends from the outlet chute to an upper periphery of the central stage across the peripheral portion of the rotary disc in the upper delivery portion and has a tunnel passage for passing the transporting pin. Thus, when the rotary disc is rotated, a coin is transported from the bottom portion of the hopper to the outlet chute at the upper delivery portion by each of the transporting pins which project from the surface of the rotary disc and pass through the tunnel passage in the delivery guide.
Aforementioned coin dispensing apparatus of prior art has a disadvantage in that the size of the coin agitating pin is limited since a large pin can carry one or more coins so that a coin counting device usually provided at the front of the outlet chute would make a miscount or the inlet of the outlet chute would be jammed with coins.
In order to solving the aforementioned problems, the coin dispensing device may be arranged such that the coin agitating pins can be extruded from the surface of the central circular stage of the rotary disc in a minimum amount in the upper delivery portion and in a maximum amount at a coin picking up position as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,818,918 issued to Nissmo et al and in also U.S. patent application Ser. No. 358,836 filed on May 30, 1989 by the present applicant. A coin dispensing apparatus according to the U.S. patent application Ser. No. 358,836 comprises a supporting plate having supporting surfaces presenting first and second peripheral bearing means; a hopper for holding a supply of coins in bulk mounted on said support plate; an outlet chute; a rotary disc having a peripheral portion, a central circular stage and a plurality of circumferentially spaced transporting pin receiving holes and coin agitating pin receiving holes around in the peripheral portion and the said central stage, respectively, and mounted on said first peripheral bearing means to rotatably support said disc in said hopper; a coin delivery guide mounted to extend across said peripheral portion of said rotating disc for guiding coins on said peripheral portion to said outlet chute; and a carrier having a plurality of coin transporting pins and coin agitating pins projecting therefrom through said pin receiving holes in said rotary disc, and a radially outer peripheral area presenting an inner side mounted on said second peripheral bearing means to rotatably support said carrier in said hopper, said carrier being rotatable in a plane extending at an acute angle to said rotary disc so as to cause said pins which extend through said pin receiving holes in said rotary disc to project a minimum amount from said front surface at said delivery guide and to project a maximum amount at said coin picking up position.
However, it has been founded from the result of various tests that the problems of miscounting and jamming of coins in the upper delivery portion by the coin agitating pins can not be satisfactly removed unless amount of extruding of the coin agitating pins in the upper delivery portion is decreased to substantially zero. Moreover, in such an arrangement that the amount of extruding of the coin agitating pins in the upper delivery portion is substantially zero, coins are not effectively agitated by only the coin agitating pins in the bottom portion of the hopper.